


gold

by pricc



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Colors, Gen, no beta we die like men, noir makes me cry ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 05:51:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17761010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pricc/pseuds/pricc
Summary: May 27, 1937.Four years since Peter had seen the other Spiders (plus a few days if you want to get technical.)Usually, the colors on the strange cube make him feel hopeless. Like his world would never have color. However, he is wrong.May 27, 1937. Pedestrian Day.The opening of the Golden Gate Bridge.





	gold

**Author's Note:**

> whoops I like the golden gate bridge a lot for some reason
> 
> so I imagine the gate to be like
> 
> one of the first colors in noir's world?? idk man

_May 26, 1937_

 

Gray, he decided, was an sickening color.

Gray, gray, gray. This godforsaken world only had gray. Of course, he'd smile at the red and blue and green and yellow and orange on the little cube he had solved about a year ago. But it wasn't from this world. It was kind of scary to think, maybe, this world would never don any colors in the end.

He wished to be like the others. Colorful and lovely. Instead, he was stuck with this dark, depressing dump of shit, all blacks and grays and whites.

An artist might argue that monotone art is beautiful. He couldn't disagree. But if you had to live in a painted, fake gray city, with its white lights and dark criminals, you'd go crazy. The lack of color was too much for an average mind that hasn't been exposed to such conditions.

He sighed, the colors clicking in place, yet still in its perfect, finished assembly. Well, he  _assumed_ it was finished. All the colors matched one another on the sides. He was getting to remember these basic colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and undeniable white.

Of course, he knew the colors. It was taught in school. But one would never truly know what it looked like. One could guess, but true color was impossible to achieve.

The rooftop he was perched on was damp with the never ending rain, yet he was careful to protect the cube from it. Four years ago, he took this cube home. Four years ago, he lost any sense of true family.

There was Aunt May. There was always Aunt May. But Aunt May was so different here and from the other worlds. She seemed older, emptier, duller. She seemed deprived of feeling. Wasn't everyone in this darkened world?

Something caught Peter's ear: chatter. That was new. The people usually spoke in hushed, rushed voices. As if they had so much to say, but nowhere safe to say so. But these proclamations were loud. Confident.

"Are you going to walk on the bridge? They're opening tomorrow, only for pedestrians!"

Peter sat up a little. The bridge, as he had known it, had been in construction for four years. It was also in San Francisco, which was very far from New York. If he remembered correctly, almost three thousand miles. Web slinging there would consume lots of webs, which were valuable and hard to make. He didn't plan on going.

"Of course I ain't going. It's in San Francisco. Plus, it's just a bridge. What's so special about it?"

"You don't understand. This bridge, its  _different!_ "

"Whaddaya mean, different?"

"I don't know how to describe it. I think they called it  _orange._ "

Peter sat up at this new revelation. Orange. In this world? No. No way. It wasn't possible. He couldn't waste all that webbing just to see a bridge. But orange...

He sighed, jumped into his apartment, and readied a bag of web fluid.

* * *

According to modern day Google, the time to ride from New York to San Francisco would take a person 44 hours in a car, a little less than two days. Give yourself 958 hours, about forty days, and you can walk.

Peter took a little under a day.

How, you may ask, can one being, even if powered with spider traits and aided by webs for transportation, can get from one place to another faster than a modern car?

Many factors contribute to this, one being his... contacts. There are some shifty people in the world, and if you pick your cards right, you can get a lot of things. Another point could be his absolute urgency. Peter arrived early in the morning in San Francisco completely physically and mentally tired. He didn't take any breaks, and only stopped for 20 minutes to snooze once he finished.

Finally, skirting through the city, he saw it.

Color.

_Orange._

The Golden Gate Bridge was a stunning vermillion orange color (which would later be identified as the color International Orange) that hung as the wonderful suspension bridge it was over the strait the bridge had been named after, the Golden Gate.

The pure beauty of this architectural masterpiece completely and utterly blew Peter away. He was suddenly glad he had wasted his webbing for this. He wouldn't miss this for the world.

People started to gather at a starting line, and Peter watched from a suspension cable. Harder to hold onto than a building, but it would suffice. Joseph Strauss, the mastermind who built this, was speaking, but Peter was admiring the bridge. He'd never seen anything like it -- it truly was a special bridge.

The starting line was broken, which snapped his attention back to it. A young man was dashing across the giant bridge, a man who he would learn later to be a student named Donald Bryan. The first person to cross the bridge. Other people, it seemed, also wanted to be first at something. He watched in amusement as two women started to rollerblade their way across.

_Well, it wouldn't hurt if I were the first to web sling across the bridge, would it?_

And there he went, letting the fresh, salty air bleed through his mask, feeling free and purer than ever. People started to point and yell. "Look, it's Spider-Man!" "You can't say he isn't the first to fly across this bridge, can you?"

It felt like forever since he had felt so exhilarated.

People yelled out to him as he passed, and grinned madly as he waved. For once, people didn't see Spider-Man as an object of fear. They were proud. They were accepting. Something Peter had thought to be utterly impossible.

Making it to the end, Donald Bryan smiled at him. It wasn't the common forced smile you give to strangers, but a genuine smile. It was kind of scary. "Hey man, that was amazing, dick." No, he wasn't offending him in any way. Dick was another word for detective. Crazy? It's the 1930s.

Peter gave a nod of thanks, a strange sensation bubbling in his chest. People were being kind and good. In a time infested with poverty and hunger, people were smiling at one another and crying of joy. There was only one word for this sensation.

Happiness.

Unfortunately, all things must come to an end. As people finished, the sun set lower and lower into the sky. Peter didn't feel the need to stay for the day of the autos, so he clicked on another carton of web fluid in his shooter.

"Abyssinia, San Francisco."

* * *

Back in New York, he couldn't shake this bubbly feeling. Of course, it was enjoyable and he never wanted it to go away. It was slightly uncomfortable at first, due to him not being used to it, but it gradually got better. He almost felt like grinning. He had only felt like this one other time, and that was with his fellow web warriors.

He missed them. But knowing there was some color in his universe finally made him content.

Suddenly, a few circles bubbled on Peter's apartment wall. It grew larger to reveal a black spot. A portal. He grabbed his cube and gun, waiting for the thing to drag him in, maybe even take him to his  ~~acquaintances~~ friends. But it could be dangerous. He pulled out his gun and aimed at the spot.

He was almost scared to look, but relief came washing down as a familiar voice yelped, "Buddy, don't shoot! We come in peace! Take us to your ruler?"

It was almost a dream. He couldn't believe he'd hear that voice, or that giggle from another person ever again. They gave him that happiness he had been missing. Maybe it was a dream. Or a cruel prank. Slowly opening his eyes, Peter saw his multicolored friends standing in the portal.

Peni and Ham waved at him, stepping out. No glitches. They rushed to him, engulfing him in a warm hug that Peter melted into. It had been so long. Too long.

"I missed you guys."

 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed sksksks


End file.
